Graphical user interfaces, or "GUIs" as they are often designated, have become an increasingly common and popular feature of computers, especially personal computers (PCs). One of the many advantages of such GUIs is that they allow a user to enter commands by selecting and manipulating graphical display elements, such as icons, usually with a pointing device, such as a mouse. A mouse is an input device which, when moved over a surface, moves a mouse pointer across the computer display in a corresponding manner. Typically, a mouse has at one to three buttons which when pressed, generate to the computer an input relating the user and the location of the mouse on the computer display. "Clicking" will be used herein to refer to the pressing and releasing of a mouse button, usually the left mouse button, unless otherwise specified. The icons of a GUI are designed to behave in a manner similar to the objects they represent. The Apple Macintosh user interface, Microsoft Windows operating environment, and UNIX X-Windows are common and very popular examples of GUIs, illustrating the fact that the advantages of GUIs over conventional text-based user interfaces are widely recognized.
Clearly, GUIs significantly reduce the amount of information that a user must recall in order effectively to use the computer. For example, instead of having to remember the name of an application program and navigate by manual typing, the user can search files and launch applications in a more intuitive manner, such as by clicking on well organized buttons and icons. As a result of the ever-increasing popularity of GUIs, a variety of different means for organizing and navigating through the various application and other programs have been developed. One such navigational metaphor, hereinafter referred to as "SPOT" or the "SPOT interface," is described in detail in commonly-assigned, cop ending U.S. application Ser. No. 08/431,280, filed Apr. 28, 1995, entitled USER INTERFACE FOR PERSONAL COMPUTER AND THE LIKE, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
One of the many unique features of SPOT, as described in the referenced application, is that it is small and unobtrusive. While SPOT's small size provides it with many advantages over previous navigational metaphors, it may be difficult for a user to control the movement of the mouse such that the mouse pointer may be easily positioned directly over SPOT and its associated buttons and other graphical display elements ("GDEs").
Various methods and apparatus currently exist for allowing a user to control certain aspects of computer mouse operation. For example, the Windows interface enables a user to access a mouse dialog box whereby he can adjust the tracking speed, which refers to the speed at which the mouse pointer moves across the display, and double click speed, which refers to the rate at which Windows recognizes double clicks, of the mouse. One feature of the mouse that is not controllable using the Windows GUI is the responsiveness of the mouse pointer displayed on the display to mouse movement. Clearly, such a feature would be beneficial for use in connection with any type of user interface, but would be especially useful in connection with GUI's having small buttons and GDEs, such as the SPOT interface described above. Providing means by which a user can control the responsiveness of the mouse pointer provides him with the capability to prevent, or at reduce the possibility, of overshoot. It will be recognized, therefore, that this feature would be especially beneficial in cases where the user is a small child or an older person, neither of whom typically have the manual dexterity necessary to accurately control a mouse or other input device and hence the position of the pointer on the display.
Therefore, what is needed is a mechanism for enabling the user to control the responsiveness of a mouse, and thereby limit the amount of overshoot that can occur.